People of the Heath

Burial urn found on Petersfield Heath

In this fourth season of excavations on Petersfield Heath two of the three sites excavated had points of particular interest. The most exciting find is a presumed burial urn found under Barrow 8 close to its centre. The urn was placed in a tightly fitting pit, and the archaeologists and volunteers had to painstakingly excavate it and lift it complete with its contents for laboratory micro-excavation. Its full story will only be revealed over the coming months, but it is already clear that it is a Collared Urn, a ceramic type dating roughly to 2000 – 1500 BC. Collared Urn burials are not uncommon in the Early Bronze Age, but the Barrow 8 example seems to have associated organic objects. These could be further rare and significant finds to add to the mineral-replaced wooden handle from Barrow 13 and the half tree-trunk from Site 24.